Softball: Benched by IHSA, Yanes has found a team in Iowa

Payton Yanes’s softball journey is much clearer now.

No more doubt. No more drama. No more sitting at home after school while the rest of her softball teammates are playing.

She couldn’t be any happier.

“I need to be on the field,” said Yanes, a Newman sophomore. “It’s my escape from reality, it’s what I love to do, and it’s my passion.”

After more than a month of wondering if Yanes was going to play high school softball this year, answers went from few and far between to finding a temporary home far away from home. Yanes, who transferred from Rock Falls High School last month, will play for the 16U Gold Division team in the Iowa Premier League out of Des Moines, Iowa.

“I really wanted to find a team that would better me as a player and get me to the next level,” Yanes said.

No ineligibility by-law, no transfer concurrence stipulation, and no one was going to stop the 16-year-old Rock Falls girl from doing what she loves to do.

Reality sets in

Dan and Tara Yanes, Payton’s parents, filed for divorce on March 13, 1 week after softball practice started at Rock Falls. Payton took to the Rockets softball diamond one last time later that day to address her team about everything that had transpired.

Tara gained custody of Payton, and moved outside of the Rock Falls High School district. Dan remained at the family home in town. Residing with her mother meant she could no longer attend Rock Falls, let alone play on the softball team.

Tara Yanes decided to enroll her daughter at Newman, which is where some of her club ball teammates play – particularly Madison Craft. Comets head coach JD Waldschmidt brought her on the team, and even assigned her a jersey.

The move raised plenty of eyebrows at Rock Falls, where that school’s administration challenged the legality of the transfer, per IHSA by-laws. In each transfer situation regarding student-athletes, the IHSA has principals of both schools – in this case, Newman principal Kathy Howard and athletic director Mike Pappoccia, and Rock Falls principal Michael Berentes and athletic director Rich Montgomery – sign a letter of concurrence approving of the transfer.

Rock Falls contended that Yanes’s transfer made her ineligible for the rest of the softball season based on a by-law that prohibits student athletes from playing on another school’s team having once practiced for another school at the start of the sports’s season.

“There are certain things on that letter of concurrence that either myself or Mr. Montgomery signs off on,” Berentes said. “There are certain things that you have to check for it to then go to the IHSA for a decision. All we did was answer these questions honestly.”

Berentes also stated that there was no recruiting involved in the situation. Dan Yanes has also stated that there was no recruiting involved.

Being ineligible meant Payton had to sit out Newman’s season. It was a difficult pill for her to swallow, but the fight wasn’t over. The will to play was too great, and it meant going through a bevy of challenges to make that happen.

The following month would be a serious test of patience, but the inclusion on Iowa Premier has become the light at the end of the tunnel.

“I realized that I’m able to handle a lot more than I thought,” Payton Yanes said, “between the family problems, and rumors that have happened, and the drama. I’m just able to carry myself through it a lot better than what I thought I would.”

Searching for answers

Dan and Peyton Yanes drove to the IHSA headquarters in Bloomington on April 18 to state their case to the association’s board of directors in an appeals process. The IHSA hears roughly five cases on such matters each month, and most wind up being upheld.

“I went to the appeal that day and got in front of 20 people,” Payton Yanes said. “It’s not about the records, not about the newspaper articles, it’s not about state championships, it’s about me being able to play softball.”

Yanes’s ineligibility was upheld, and that route was blocked. Having felt confident that the ruling would be overturned, the thoughts that Dan Yanes had as the next course of action would become serious – even if that meant another trip to a court room.

But Payton just wanted to play softball, and dad settled down.

“Peyton talked me off the ledge,” Dan Yanes said. “We had an attorney at the house that night and we were going to file a temporary restraining order which would have given her 2 weeks of eligibility.

“She said, ‘dad, I appreciate you fighting for me, but there are other options.’”

Waldschmidt and Dan Yanes had thought of setting up meetings with travel softball programs throughout the Midwest. Iowa Premier considered Payton’s softball abilities, and an agreement was reached this past Wednesday to allow her to play for the club.

“We could be spending that money and go traveling,” Payton Yanes said, “to Kansas City or Nebraska and playing in these bigger tournaments.”

Saturday will mark Payton Yanes’s first time in a game situation since this past summer. She’ll play with the 16U Gold in the USA Softball Invitational in Overland Park, Kansas. She’ll pitch and play other positions as needed against 35 of the best teams in the nation at that age group.

She hasn’t been there yet, and she’ll meet everyone Thursday night.

“I’m so excited, because being on the field is the best part of the game,” Payton Yanes said. “I love going to practice and being with everyone, and the girls, too. But it’s kind of been burning me out, always doing the same drills. I haven’t been in a game situation in so long.”

“I always joke around with her and tell her it’s easy to be the big fish in the small pond,” Dan Yanes said. “It’s a big country, and there are a lot of girls working just as hard or harder than you every day. There’s kids that are going to be better than her on that team. Not only on that team, but the competition they’re going to play. It gives her a chance to see where she measures up.”

A clear path

Payton Yanes will be eligible to play volleyball for her junior year at Newman in August. That will come after the softball commitments with Iowa Premier and the Sauk Valley Youth Softball program, which starts in the second week of June.

After the volleyball season, the softball routine will be back to normal – but while donning Newman blue and white instead of Rock Falls green and black.

“I already appreciate the game so much more because I can’t play it,” Payton Yanes said. “I’m just hoping that I’ll be able to play the game and not be selfish about it. I’ve learned that a lot of my life is set around softball, and losing it was really hard.

“It’s great to know that I’m not going to have to go through this process again.”